For five years, a source featuring authors primarily from romance and women's fiction, now also offering services for writers. Administered by author Shannon Muir; her site-branded e-books help support operation. DISCOVER WORDS… THE BLOG features every Monday and INSIDE THE PAGES OF INFINITE HOUSE OF BOOKS every Wednesday!

OWN YOUR OWN TALE focuses on crafting a person’s own unique stories through the art of journal writing. This installment offers reflection on the struggles of making journal writing a habit.

They say it takes thirty days to make something a habit. I don’t know if that’s true or not, because admittedly it’s difficult for me to do something consistently every day. If it’s something I have to do daily, I need to create reminders for myself; it’s just the way my brain is wired.

What I do know is that with journal writing, you have to have a passion to do it. Unless you are using a journal to get you to do a free writing exercise every day (and there’s nothing wrong with that, by the way), making it just a routine thing you do can cut down on the passion for it. After that, the results can carry far less meaning and thereby drag down the motivation.

Personally, I believe passion is the key to motivation. Write when something moves or strikes you enough to not want to forget, particularly the feelings. You can remember the facts of something hours later, but capturing a moment of time of the emotion surrounding it is much harder. I’ve had times I’ve thought of something and said “I’ll write that down later” only to find I not only don’t remember with the clarity of detail, but I don’t remember with the same amount of passion.

Building a journal habit or routine doesn’t have a one size fits all prescription; it’s as unique as those doing the writing. The test of whether or not a good habit has been formed is if journal writing is achieving the desired results; if not, then a person should look to how they are approaching it and what they can better do to achieve the results wanted from their own personal journal.

After all, each person owns how he or she tells her tale.

Please remember that the contents of OWN YOUR OWN TALE are solely the opinions of administrator Shannon Muir and are intended for general advice and reflection. Each person’s unique writing situation is different.